Class Minutes

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Discussion of Black Orpheus

2:05pm 

Dr. Reimer enters the room while holding onto his Mickey Mouse coffee mug.

He mentions that someone had turned the color off, and that is why the colorful Black Orpheus film was without any color.  He reminds the class not to worry about that homework question.

Old tests and papers are handed back to the class.  Then Dr. Reimer divides the class into 5 groups for discussion of the film.  He emphasizes, “No switching numbers!”

The groups discuss for 10 minutes.  Everyone is called back to his/her seat.

Dr. Reimer talks about how important it is to realize the background information that makes up a film.  That is a problem with education today.  Yet pop-culture is always utilizing this background information.  The Matrix, for example, is difficult to fully enjoy without understanding the post-modern ideas and philosophies.  Dr. Reimer says that he sometimes lets his students watch the films without first being introduced to the background information.  That way, they will not be led into the instructor’s (his) interpretation but will arrive at one on their own.  Then, the second time they watch the film, now having the background information (context), they will gain a new understanding of the movie.  Plus, he thinks it’s fun to guess with a group of friends what the film was about, over a couple beers.

Class discussion begins.  The first question is: How does Marcel Camus transfer the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to film?  Group 2 responds with, when the lady tells Orpheus to look back.  They also mention that going into the morgue is like going into the Afterworld, and that the guitar is used as the lyre.  Dr. Reimer asks about a different approach.  Group 1 responds, “Using the magistrate as a storyteller”. 

Dr. Reimer moves on to the next question: What role does Carnival play in the film?  Group 2 answers that Carnival is a character; Carnival centers the film; it sets a happy mood around something darker; it sets up a world the viewer needs; it sets up realism; it’s symbolic (“party before fasting”) like in the myth.  Group 3 says that Carnival is the back-story and the foundation/glue that helped keep the story together.  Group 4 mentions that even though Carnival is a setting, it is also a subplot; because of Carnival, they were ‘allowed’ to change their personalities; death could dress up as death.  Dr. Reimer says that there is an overlay of a story about Carnival and a myth.  The love story and myth are being combined. 

Dr. Reimer answers the question about color.  He says the colors are vibrant and chaotic.  The colors take over.  Carnival doesn’t balance the color palette – it’s a wild time. Yellow is the sunny, joyous occasion.  A red dress is on the lover.  Eurydice wears a white dress.  VHS probably couldn’t show this, but DVD or a movie theater would.

The class moves on to question 4: Describe Camus’s use of music.  Dr. Reimer says it’s unbelievable how complex music can be used.  Like in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the composer comments on every little thing that happens.  Like in Spellbound, where the music hints at the mental life of the character.  Hollywood is a master at music and sound, of course they have the money to hire composers and post-production studios.  Gerald mentions that the music is both within and outside of Black Orpheus.  It’s hard for him to believe that the music is always there, as if they can’t escape the rhythm of carnival.

Dr. Reimer asks: what about this film tells us that we might not be familiar with the background myth of Orpheus?  He mentions the marriage guy, and that when we can recognize him, then we get the joke.  The music melody becomes a leitmotif.  It occurs strategically throughout the film.  The most famous example is Jaws.  A student also mentions Star Wars, wherein each character has his/her own song.  Dr. Reimer continues.  He says leitmotif occurs here on a simple basis.  But at the same time, the music is drowned out by the chaos of Carnival.  Like in Carmen, those two styles (opera and flamenco) battle each other.  Which song wins: the quiet, rational love song of Orpheus or the frenzied, irrational samba, which leads to both deaths.  The irrational wins. 

The class moves on to question 5: Compare Camus’s film with Cocteau’s film.  Dr. Reimer asks, “If that question appeared on a test, what would you say?”  One student responds that in Cocteau’s version, Orpheus’s true love is Death, not Eurydice – it strays a bit from the myth.  Dr. Reimer says that there is an obvious difference that should be hitting you over the head.  The class gives up.  He continues and says that Cocteau’s movie is a myth, but he puts it into reality.  The resistance, the numbers, the poets, the groupies, and the societies are all real – but Cocteau uses the Orphic myth.  Dr. Reimer asks about Black Orpheus.  Every single thing in the movie could be explainable, it could happen.  It’s not necessarily a myth.  Cocteau puts the myth into 1949 France, whereas Camus uses the myth to tell a modern 1950’s love story (jealous girl, explainable death, morgue, Carnival, etc.).  It makes it more believable.  Gerald says that he ties it more to Carmen.  For Dr. Reimer, because of his familiarity with the myth, it’s more of a love story that prepares him for tragedy.  Death is not the usual costume at Carnival.  Carnival is about a new identity, not about trying to reach death, which he sees as an inappropriate image for Carnival. 

He asks for some other examples of the myth.  One student mentions Ghost (with a role reversal).  Dr. Reimer mentions What Dreams May Come.  He says it’s in essence an Orpheus myth.  Robin Williams walks over faces (Werner Herzog’s face included as a joke aimed at the New German Cinema) and tries to bring himself back to his wife.  A student mentions that in the Orpheus myth, he kind of asks to be killed.  Another student asks, “Did he die at the end?”  The class chuckles.

Dr. Reimer shows clips from other Orpheus-inspired films.  Some critics were upset because Black Orpheus was produced by a French company.  In 1999, Brazil released their version of the film.  In the newer version, the director puts it in a contemporary Brazilian environment: drug dealers, religious cults, and terrorists.  It’s the myth plus the grittiness of urban life.  The other version is a “dream-world” carnival.  The country and Carnival are being romanticized.  Dr. Reimer also shows Nobody Loves Me, a German film by Doris Dörrie.  It is set during Carnival in Köln.  Fanny is the main character who is obsessed with death.  Her friend is a psychic, gay, black man named Orpheus.  Dr. Reimer then shows brief clip from the TV show Oz.  The storyteller sits in front of a background that is made up of a dark sky, stars, and a Greek statue.  He tells the tale with a pessimistic urban twist and a foul mouth. 

Dr. Reimer dismisses class.